4.13 Canadian History Through Poetry and Lyrics - Part One
A Short History Lesson
Follow the Drinking Gourd is a special set of song lyrics taught to African slaves in the United States in the 1800s that helped them to find their way north to freedom on what is now called the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was not a railway at all!
The "Underground Railroad" is a metaphor, a name, given to the network of people, homes, and hideouts that African slaves in the southern United States used to escape to freedom in Canada.
"underground" = secret
"railroad" = the way it was used to transport people
There are many hidden meanings in the lyrics of Follow the Drinking Gourd. Imagine if the "slave catchers" knew what the words actually meant!